Breaking Down the TVi Channel Report: Likeability

How Does the Channel Report Study Likeability?

We’re breaking down the metrics that matter in your customized Channel Report, which you can run at VideoAmigo.com. We?ve already talked about Views, View Density, Subscribers and Subscriber Conversion. Now let’s talk about how successful a channel is at making a connection with their viewer – Likeability.

A channel’s audience provides valuable feedback. When a viewer likes a video, they press the Like button (duh). What is the average rate of liking on YouTube? Surprisingly, it typically runs less than one-half of one percent.

Some videos, channels and topics generate a much higher Like rate than others. For each Topic, Conversation, and Theme in the Touchstorm Video Index, we determine the average Like rate and normalize it to an Index of 100, so that videos and channels in that competitive set can be judged on relative Likeability. The highest indices indicate very strong Likeability for the content.

This is important because the Channel Report lets you see how you stack up in Likeability against your competition and the best performers in your category — not the entire YouTube universe.

Let’s take a look at a Channel Report we ran on fan-favorite Epic Meal Time:

The Like rating for epicmealtime is high and the Dislike rating is average. That means epicmealtime is generating greater than average positive engagement and average negative engagement with viewers.

In an effort to serve up the content that people are most interested in, YouTube’s algorithms prize engagement. Therefore, videos have a much better chance of being featured as a Suggested Video offering when their engagement scores are higher. (Especially when you combine high engagement scores with high view counts and fast view velocity.)

If your Like and Dislike indices are both close to 100, then your channel is displaying patterns typical of the category norm. The more to the extremes you are, the more you are generating extreme emotions from those who watch your videos.

This statistic is an amalgam of all the videos in your library. It can really help you get a better handle on how viewers are responding your content in relation to those making similar videos.

Next time we’ll talk about Best Channel Practices — what it means and how it can help you understand the health of your YouTube channel.